Zurich, Halloween, and more Hedgehogs

Ok, it has been a while since I've posted anything, so this is going to be a long one.

First, Emily and I spend a weekend in Zurich a couple of weeks ago. It was very romantic...we rented a paddleboat on the Zurich See (lake); hiked in the hills, enjoying the fall leaves and overview of Zurich; strolled through the botanical gardens... I could go on and on.

Here's Emily looking at the bulletin board at the ETH (the Harvard of Europe). We've been watching a lot of Gilmore Girls lately.

This is my Swiss bed in the hostel we stayed in.

Is this pot? It was growing in the botanical gardens.

Here's Emily during our romantic paddle boat ride on the Zurich See.

Seriously though, Zurich is a beautiful city and we saw some nice churches and museums, including the Museum of Skin Diseases and the coffee museum. We thought the art museums sounded boring. FYI, the skin disease museum was disgusting!!!

From left to right: The largest clock in Europe, a blue cow, a view of the Alps through the fog, Emily on the rooftop terrace of our hostel

On to Halloween. I am planning a big costume party and encouraging all my non American friends to participate in the tradition. Last weekend Kristina, Dirk, Emily, and I carved pumpkins and ate pumpkin soup (provided by Kristina).

Finally, I have an update to my continuing fascination with hedgehogs. I touched one! Emily says I'm going to get rabies if I don't stop touching every animal I see, but they are so cute! I touched it's face and ear and it's spiky back (it wasn't very sharp).